Speaking at the closing ceremony of the World Food Forum in Rome, Mr Higgins spoke about addressing climate change and said many global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals are going “in the wrong direction”.
“We have had so many broken promises. Only 15pc of some 140 specific targets to achieve the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals are on track to be achieved,” he told delegates at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN today,” he said.
“Many targets are going in the wrong direction at the present time, and not a single one is expected to be achieved in the next seven years.”
Mr Higgins said there are “some reasons” to be hopeful, including young people who are dedicated to tackling “the serious structural causes of food insecurity and global hunger”.
He said for anyone to ignore hunger would be “a dereliction of our duty of care” to the planet and to future generations.
Mr Higgins also addressed the impact of an over-reliance on commodity crops on farmers and the reality that women are the most impacted by the food crisis.
“Climate change, and our response to it, is a core theme and will remain a core theme of my Presidency in Ireland,” he said, calling climate change “our most pressing existential crisis”.
He also encouraged young people to ensure “all human endeavours are allowed to flow across borders”.
He said a “reactive emergency response” does not address the structural issues of climate change, later telling young delegates to “have the courage” to stand up to those who are speculating on food, especially during famine.
Mr Higgins said at many programmes, texts are created but “people still starve and conflicts go on” and full engagement is necessary.
He said he was “delighted” that the Department of Agriculture in Ireland facilitated delegates from the Global South to attend the World Food Forum.
The event marks the end of his week-long trip to Rome that included a private meeting with Pope Francis at the Apostolic Palace yesterday.
During that meeting, the pair discussed climate change, migration and the inclusion of women and LGBT people in the Catholic Church.
He also addressed the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza during the course of the trip, telling reporters yesterday that actions carried out by both Hamas and the state of Israel could amount to a “breach of international humanitarian law”.